Salted Cantaloupe Jam

Recipe At-A-Glance

Cantaloupe certainly isn’t the first fruit you think of when it comes time to make jam, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be on your “must can” list! This Salted Cantaloupe Jam is a new favorite in our house.

I take a lot of pride in where I live. I know a lot of folks consider Indiana a “fly over state” and that might be a negative to the vast majority of citizens in this country, but I’ll let you in on a little bit of a secret—us Midwesterners enjoy the fact that we’re off the radar.

I love that I have neighbors who never will bother me unless I need them to, and then they’d give me the shirts off their backs. I love that I can drive for hours and hours and see little more than farmhouses and cornfields. I love that I can keep my car unlocked (and running) while I pop into the post office. And I love that I can drive up to any one of two dozen farm stands within a five mile radius in August and buy farm fresh cantaloupe by dropping a few quarters in an old coffee can.

Southern Indiana isn’t really well-known for a lot of stuff (other than being Louisville’s hat), but one thing we do excel at is making some seriously mean cantaloupes. In particular, Jackson County, Indiana—which is just north of where we live—is pretty well-known in the region as having the best cantaloupes in all of the Midwest. Folks drive hundreds of miles to visit this rural Indiana county just to grab a cantaloupe or two! I’m not sure what it is about this area that produces the sweetest, juiciest, biggest cantaloupes you’ll ever see, but I’m not complaining.

We only planted a handful of cantaloupe plants this year, but we have no less than 473,000 melons on the vines right now (not only are cantaloupes grown in this area incredibly delicious, but they’re also incredibly prolific). And as much as I love eating cantaloupe morning, noon, and night, the truth is, we’re a little bit overwhelmed with our haul. Melons are one of those summer items that can be really difficult to preserve for winter eating, but I figured it might be worth a shot to try turning some of our bounty into some cantaloupe jam to enjoy during those cold January nights. And, man, was that ever a good idea.

The idea for salting the preserves came from the fact that summer dinners for me growing up meant a giant bowl of cantaloupe on the kitchen table for dessert. And next to that bowl was always the salt shaker. Just like all sweet foods, a little bit of salt sprinkled on some fresh cantaloupe slices really sets it off. I figured those flavors would be really interesting combined into a jam.

Because of the welcoming of our little girl, I haven’t had the chance to do as much canning this summer as I normally like to, but I was so happy I carved out an afternoon to make this cantaloupe jam. Not only is it delicious, but there is something about canning that makes me feel incredibly connected to my roots. My parents canned food. My grandparents canned food. My great-great-grandparents canned food. My soul tells me I should be canning on a weekend afternoon in August. It’s hard to explain, but there is something about ladling bubbly jam into steaming hot jars that makes me feel a little more connected to my past. To me, canning is so much more than just stocking away some food (although, that’s a nice perk, too).

Salted Cantaloupe Jam

Description

Cantaloupe certainly isn’t the first fruit you think of when it comes time to make jam, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be on your “must can” list! This Salted Cantaloupe Jam is a new favorite in our house.

Ingredients

6 cups diced, very ripe cantaloupe

2 tablespoons lemon juice

4 cups granulated sugar, divided

5 tablespoons powdered pectin

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Instructions

Fill a waterbath canner with water, and place inside eight half-pint jars (make sure the water covers the jars). Bring to a boil. Place lids and rings in a small saucepan with hot water and heat, but do not boil.

Bring cantaloupe, lemon juice, and 3 1/2 cups of sugar to a boil in a large stock pot over medium-high heat. Bring to a full, rolling boil that cannot be stirred down (it should take 10-15 minutes).

Once the mixture is at a full boil, whisk together the remaining sugar and the pectin. Whisk the mixture into the cantaloupe mixture.

Bring mixture back to a full boil, and then boil hard for 2-3 minutes, or until the mixture looks thickened and is set. I like to test it by putting a small amount on a spoon and placing it in the freezer for a few minutes. If it’s jelly-like when it’s cold, it’s set! If not, boil for a few more minutes.

Once set, remove from heat, and stir in the vanilla extract and salt.

Remove the hot jars from the waterbath canner, and turn the canner back up onto high.

Ladle the jam into the hot jars, leaving a 1/2″ headspace. Using a clean, damp cloth, wipe any extra jam from the rim of the jars, and then place on the lids and the rings—tightening just until snug, not overly tight.

Place the jars in a rack in the waterbath canner, bring to a boil, and process for 10 minutes. Remove from canner, and let cool completely. Check seals after 24 hours—the lids shouldn’t flex or move when pushed down on. Store sealed jars in a cool dark place for up to a year. Any jars that don’t seal, place in the fridge and eat within a month.

I’ve never canned before (but I do remember “helping” my mom with it – aka eating jam – when I was little in Norway), but I have a friend who is ready and willing to show me the ropes once I get my own gear, so this would be perfect!

Research CAREFULLY when you can tomatoes if you don’t do it right and can at the correct temp it can end in illness we LOVE doing our own but I know my grandma always made sure to be real careful that they sealed correctly and everything was clean!

I really want to learn how to can dill pickles. I got a bag of Mrs. Wages spices but it says to use a non-reactive pan and I have no idea how to tell what my pans are made of. I also don’t have any materials for water bath canning, but I’d love to learn. My family has always canned but I’m a little afraid to do it on my own. I also want to do peaches and applesauce.

As a recent master’s graduate taking the summer off, I have been canning all season as a way to stretch my grocery budget and my growing season. My favorite are fridge pickles, made with something sweet and a couple hot peppers from the garden. Fridge pickles are my favorite because they keep their crunch.

Okay, so I really want to can but I can’t even think of something that I’d have ENOUGH of to can. So I will say that it would either be blueberry jam (because there are a million U-Pick blueberry farms up here in NW Indiana) OR… I’d be using those jars as containers for my dry goods until I can get a garden up and running. =)

My family always canned things growing up, too, and I would really like to start on my own! I planted a ton of tomato plants this year and have too-many-to-count green babies just waiting to turn red to harvest! I would love to can these in lots of forms (sauce, whole, crushed, salsa, etc) to have on hand for the winter!

I tried my hand at canning pickled radishes (no-go) and apricot-lime jam (yay!), but I want to expand my abilities and be able to can more whole tomatoes, sauces, pureed squash, etc. That jam looks delicious!

My grandma has been making her own raspberry and blackberry jams for ages now, and we always love to get a jar or two of “grandma jam” to take home in the summer. I would love to try making her recipe at home and have my own stash to last all year!

This recipe sounds AHmazing!! I haven’t canned anything before, but I’d like to try canning meat. My husband smokes a lot of meat on our smoker, and it’d be great if it was possible to can some of it rather than freezing it all…

I’d love to learn how to can spaghetti sauce. I grew up canning with my Mom, but we’ve always stuck to jam, etc – which I don’t eat a lot. I know there is something more complicated with spaghetti sauce, but I’ve never really understood why.

I recently canned peaches, peach butter (which totally bombed and is more like syrup…yum!), and pickles. Hoping for applesauce, pears, and possibly salsa or tomatoes. Oh and green beans! I love canning!

I would love to learn how to can so that I can carry on the tradition of making Grandma Jelly – it’s simple fig and strawberry gelatin jam, but it’s as much of a piece of my childhood as summer and sunshine.

I just made this and it was awesome. A really unique flavor that makes you go hmmmm. And it looks so pretty with the clear-ish orange color. The one thing I would recommend would be to cut back on the sugar. It was a little too sweet for my taste. Thanks for a great recipe!

I want to learn how to can anything and everything! But, I should probably start with the bounty of tomatoes, zucchini, jalepenos and yellow raspberries that my garden provided this summer. Thanks for sharing all your fabulous recipes and tips for those of us trying to preserve (pun intended) a natural lifestyle.

I am totally fascinated by this cantelope jam – I love summer melons and never thought to make jam from them!

I have made small batches of what I call “smooth jam” before – seedless raspberry and blackberry jam, and my partner makes quick-pickled everything, but I would love to try this cantelope jam and watermelon rind pickles as well!

i already do a lot of canning. Mainly water bath canning, but i’ve done some pressure canning too. i would love to learn to can soups and also potatoes. For some reason the low acid foods intimidate me a bit, so i have avoided them.

tomatoes, asparagus and pickles. my daughter just gave me a couple of strange cucumbers from her garden – she’s learning to be quite a little farmer – one was a white cucumber and another a lemon cucumber. I’m sure there will be lots to can!

That sounds like an interesting thing to try. Next summer, I’m not driving to your neighborhood, but I’ll try it with some local cantaloupes. I also don’t use sugar/pectin. I use a different pectin that jells with calcium, so it isn’t full of sugar. It’s worked with everything I’ve tried so far, so I expect it will be fine.

I don’t know how my mom came up with her recipe. She made cantaloupe preserves 60 years ago No one had ever heard of it or guessed what they were made of. She was way ahead of her time. Miss her every day.

Yes! Delicious awesomeness! Been making Cantaloupe Preserves for years out of cantaloupes that did not taste so great. Use equal parts sugar & cantaloupes and no vanilla or salt. Very excited about this Cantaloupe Jam recipe…the vanilla & Salt probably takes it up a notch!

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Hello, Friends!

My name is Cassie, and I want to help you eat better. I believe eating whole foods can change your life (it did mine), and I believe you can do it without losing your mind, going broke, or eating like a bird.

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